A new all-season EV tyre has been developed using a virtual prototyping and simulation platform, which has helped dramatically reduce time-to-market, the product's environmental impact, and development costs.
The newly launched Apollo Vredestein Quatrac Pro EV, Europe's first dedicated EV tyre had the fastest development cycle for any Vredestein tyre and it became the first dedicated all-season EV tyre to go on sale in Europe when it was launched in November. The in-house simulation and prototyping platform, enhanced over many years by Apollo Tyres' R&D team based in Enschede in the Netherlands, improves the overall efficiency of design and testing processes, enabling the company to achieve ambitious performance targets.
The increased use of computer simulation allowed Apollo Tyres to apply a rapid iterative design approach to optimise critical performance characteristics, including rolling resistance, grip, comfort and road noise. For example, the R&D team used simulation technology to optimise the construction of the tyre's unique contour and tread to reduce rolling resistance and thereby increase driving range. The result is a product that performs well year-round across a wide range of road surfaces.
The technology also helped Apollo Tyres reduce the Quatrac Pro EV's carbon emissions during development. As well as requiring fewer physical testing miles to evaluate the tyre ahead of launch, the increased use of computer simulation facilitated a substantial reduction in the amount of raw materials used in assessing trial compounds and for the production of test tyres. In addition, compared to previous development processes, Apollo Tyres' virtual prototyping software is helping the company greatly improve efficiency when testing tyres by harnessing advanced digital simulation. For the Quatrac Pro EV, this approach also enabled Apollo Tyres to also significantly reduce the total CO2 emissions generated during the tyre's pre-production development and test phase.
In addition to the environmental benefits, the virtual prototyping and simulation platform has allowed Apollo Tyres to access new efficiencies in its R&D processes. This helps the company maintain highly competitive pricing for end-users, despite the tyre setting new, premium-grade levels of performance and efficiency in the EV tyre category.
"The steady increase in the use of virtual prototyping in our product development has been a game-changer for our business, enabling us to meet and exceed performance criteria in a fast and reliable way," explains Dr. Udo Kuhlmann, Group Head R&D Europe, Apollo Tyres. "We've been investing in simulation software for over 25 years; our latest virtual prototyping environment is now key in helping us maintain a competitive edge.
"Real-world testing remains crucial – our tyres are often bought by driving enthusiasts and we must apply subjective as well as virtual assessment. We are now harnessing industry developments in high-performance computing and cloud-based simulation to further improve the platform," concludes Kuhlmann.
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